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Homeless Activist Using Medical Cannabis To Fight Addiction

[Editor’s Note: Hoodline is participating in SF Homeless Project, a day when 30 area publications are covering issues related to homelessness.]

Amy Farah Weiss, founder of Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge, is working on a new strategy to address opioid addiction by providing houseless residents with access to medicinal cannabis.

“One of the issues at the encampments at present is that there are a lot of people using harsh drugs,” Weiss told Hoodline. “Heroin, meth, crack—they’re injecting drugs into their body and there is the risk of overdose and infections and spreading disease.”

Weiss, whose work is centered around harm reduction, said transitioning people into permanent housing can be a complicated, long, and arduous process. And finding a one-size-fits-all solution for houseless residents isn’t realistic, especially when it comes to dealing with addiction.

A cannabis industry educator and homeless activist, Weiss said the idea came